Shaving gear

From time to time a reader will ask me what my current shaving “kit” is. As one can see from the topic “cloud” at the right, despite writing little about shaving during the last year, the Shaving topic remains quite large and dominant; a testament to the fact that I used to write about it almost daily for the first two years.

My answer to the kit question is always pretty much the same; I use whatever is at hand. This is neither a glib nor dismissive answer; the truth is that I acquired so much stuff during the original obsessive phase, that I have enough inventory to probably last 10-20 years. This time-frame is compounded by the fact that I usually only shave 3-4 times per week; the luxury of working from home and seeing clients with about that frequency.

I haven’t bought any new shaving stuff in over a year, and I must say it does please me to see some items actually being finished; I am the epitome of the anti-hoarder.

None of this should be interpreted as having lost interest in the art of shaving. In fact, I enjoy it even more when I do it. One significant philosophical change is that I never gourmet shave when in a rush. This is a mistake I made early in the game….every shave had to be savored. No more these days. I found that gourmet shaving when in a rush actually detracted from the experience. Today, if I’m in a hurry because of a meeting or deadline, I’m just as apt to grab the Schick Hydro-5 and apply a thin layer of shave cream by hand rather than brush.

And I do read Leisureguy’s shaving posts religiously for some vicarious pleasure!